■Character profile Lu Jing, Ph.D., associate researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is mainly engaged in paleoichthyology, especially the study of early bony fish evolution. In 2011, he received his PhD from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and then went to the Department of Applied Mathematics, Australian National University for postdoctoral research. As the first or principal researcher, he has published several papers in internationally influential journals. He has successively won honors such as "Top Ten Progresses in Geological Science and Technology" (the first completion person), the second prize of the National Natural Science Award (the fourth completion person) and the "Top Ten Progresses in Chinese Paleontology" (the seventh completion person). Since 2017, he has been the media academic consultant of the Australian Academy of Sciences. Beijing News reporter Wang Yuanzheng photo
At the end of September, Lu Jing wore a crisp short-sleeved white T with a fish printed on it, Latimai fish. She has 5 pieces of this dress in the same style.
As an associate researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lu Jing's research object is ancient fish. "The brain is the most difficult part of the body of all animals to study, especially the fish brain." There are only about 10 people in the world doing research in the same direction as Lu Jing, "very unpopular."
However, in the online world, there are nearly 400,000 ordinary members of the public who are looking forward to the updated video of "Mr. Lu Who Plays with Bones". Through Teacher Lu’s video, they can learn whether fish have butts, chickens or eggs first, and whether turtles can live a hundred years... This is another job outside of Lu Jing's research-science popularization.
In June of this year, Lu Jing and her friends spliced and restored the leftover chicken bones from eating yellow braised chicken, and made a small video and released it on Douyin. To Lu Jing's surprise, this video received 1.081 million likes, 18,000 comments, and nearly 4,000 reposts—making millions of people interested in an unpopular subject. Lu Jing thought it was worth doing.
She started from "eating", splicing and restoring the leftover bones of various ingredients such as fish, chicken, duck, turtle, etc. By the way, a little knowledge of paleontology, each video does not exceed 1 minute, and the number of likes can easily exceed 10,000. Lu Jing has also become the "net celebrity sister" in the mouth of her younger brother.
But in the face of the surge in traffic, Lu Jing remained sober unlike ordinary people. "Hundreds of thousands of fans are nothing at all, it's just a number." She deliberately kept a certain distance between herself and the hustle and bustle of the Internet so that she could feel safe.
It is difficult for ordinary people to understand "scientific research" and "science popularization". The difference between one word corresponds to two completely different path choices. But Lu Jing's decision was: choose both.
especially in the face of the current status quo of "science popularization", she wants to make changes.
"I don't want others to say that the theory of evolution is to fool people, and we don't fool people." There are too many rumors on
. She hopes that people who do research will also do science popularization and use the attitude of doing scientific research to do science popularization so that the public can distinguish. What is correct knowledge.
Some paleontological specimens and models displayed in Lu Jing's office. Beijing News reporter Wang Yuanzheng photo
"I will never finish researching in a lifetime"
On the 9th floor of the office building opposite the Beijing Zoo, there is a miraculous museum in miniature. This is Lu Jing's office. Here you can find the fossils of amphibians from Madagascar, the fossils of Australia 350 million years ago... Hundreds of fossils, models and specimens of ancient creatures are displayed in this space of less than 20 square meters.
Among the many models in Lu Jing's office, the most frequent one is the Latimai fish. Different sizes, different materials, and different shapes, Lu Jing can find dozens of them for you. She collects everything related to Latimer fish, books, stamps...buy as soon as you see it, and until the other party is out of stock.
Lu Jing is fascinated by the Latimai fish, a kind of finfish, one of the earliest fish living on the earth. It began to swim in the deep sea 400 million years ago and still survives in Como, South Africa. There are only a few hundred in the Indian Ocean waters of the Rocky Islands and Indonesia. Lu Jing feels that the species of Latimer fish is more amazing than the Tyrannosaurus rex in the dinosaur period. "It was like this 400 million years ago. Not only is it not extinct now, but its appearance has not changed much."
has different styles of Latimer. Next to the fish model, Lu Jing posted a cartoon, which was a scene from Toriyama Akira's "Dragon Ball". Lu Jing is a fan of comics and started watching "Dragon Ball" as a child. This scene is about Xiao Wukong fighting with others. Halfway through the fight, he was hungry and had no energy. He went to find food. It happened to see someone grilling a big fish, Xiao Wukong III.The next five divided by two will eat the fish to bones.
saw this when she was young, Lu Jing didn't know what kind of fish it was. After going to graduate school, one day I went home and took the book out and reopened it, and suddenly I saw-isn't this a Latimer?
Exploring the shadow of human beings from this friend from 400 million years ago is also one of Lu Jing's work. Latimer fish has endoskeleton in its fin. "This structure is comparable to a human forearm," Lu Jing said excitedly. "You can see an evolutionary trend, and you can even see fish climbing onto land. In the process of becoming a four-legged vertebrate, some characteristics have actually appeared long ago..."
But what Lu Jing wanted to study "can't be done in a lifetime." Most fish became extinct 400 million years ago. Why? ? What happened that caused some of them to climb onto land and become quadrupeds? This is how scientific research is. The more you know, the more questions you have, and the more difficult it is to answer.
In addition to writing academic papers that most people can't understand, Lu Jing's work also has a cool part. In order to study the brain cavity of fossil fish, she will 3D print the skull of a fish from Australia 400 million years ago. She will scan, restore and reconstruct the shape of the fish brain cavity. Sometimes, she will start the VR program, put on the device, load some 3D reconstructed modules, and walk into the fish's brain. Soon, a very abstract thing becomes very intuitive.
In some countries where development has stagnated, the status of paleontology is worrying, but in China, the development of paleontology is at a relatively bright leading stage. "The previous generations of teachers have created very good conditions for us." Lu Jing feels lucky, but also has a sense of crisis. "If you don't work hard to do something, if you don't pay attention to paleontology in the future, it will be difficult to imagine in a few decades. What does this subject look like?”
So Lu Jing will try various research methods. In October, Lu Jing is going to give a report to share her recent progress in using artificial intelligence technology to process CT data and help reconstruct and repair specimens. Lu Jing thought, make it an open and open source software, allowing more people to make more attempts in paleontological research from more perspectives. "You really don't know which way will work."
Lu Jing uses VR programs and equipment to "enter" and observe the fish's brain. Beijing News reporter Wang Yuanzheng photo by
"Like a dream"
Before the 80s, Chuan sister Lu Jing had always felt that she and Douyin were completely "unattached." Lu Jing said that she is particularly bad at online chatting. Every time she sends an emoji, she asks others, am I using this emoji correctly?
made popular science short videos on Douyin entirely by chance. At the beginning of this year, Lu Jing was invited by China Science and Technology Press to guide and control a period of popular science video. This lively and popular short video transmission method moved Lu Jing. It would be great if more people could learn about paleontology with this method! Regarding paleontology, Lu Jing has endless knowledge and jokes to talk about.
The two sides hit it off and decided to cooperate. Since then, Xiaomeng, a boy born in the 90s from China Science and Technology Press, has become Lu Jing's partner. Lu Jing appeared and provided content, while Xiaomeng was responsible for the video shooting and editing operations, as well as the remaining work such as material procurement.
Lu Jing has a gene similar to that of many scientific researchers: he is reluctant to deal with people. Therefore, Lu Jing refused to "show his face" at first. But then he bit his head.
Some scientific knowledge is relatively boring and obscure, how can we make the public interested and like to watch it? Lu Jing thought that the best way to connect professional knowledge with the daily life of the masses is to cut in through "eating". As soon as
came up, he dug himself the hardest pit. Xiaomeng bought a fish head biscuits, and specifically told the restaurant not to split the fish head in half. I started eating less than 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and it was 10 o'clock in the evening after eating. Lu Jing was extremely desperate and felt that this fish head could not be spelled out. You must know that fish have many bones and thin bone pieces. Among all animal heads, fish heads are the most difficult to restore. What made Lu Jing collapse even more was that a pair of front upper jaw bones were eaten and lost, and they couldn't be found anymore. The fish head after the spelling was always "open mouth". In desperation, I had to remove the front upper jaw of the other fish head and glue it on. This video was barely finished.
Finally, the nearly 7 hours of video material was condensed into one minute. It is incredible that all the shooting was done with a Huawei mobile phone made by Xiaomeng, without any auxiliary equipment. Therefore, their visionNetizens always complain about the loudness and noisy background.
This video was released on May 23. An hour later, Lu Jing opened the backstage of her Douyin account and was shocked. 1 million+ views? Lu Jing thought she was wrong. The number of fans kept beating, and after a while, it changed from 0 to tens of thousands. "Like a dream". In one night, this video reached more than 4 million broadcasts, and there were more than 100,000 likes.
"Unexpectedly, such a rotten fish head would be very cool when taken." Lu Jing often said that she was a grass-roots team. "Professional specimens are a hundred times better than ours." She does not shy away, for the video effect, some The operation is unconventional. Professional methods are used to prepare specimens. How can they be assembled immediately after eating, washed with dish soap, and dried with a hair dryer? At least use sodium hydroxide to treat it!
Any animal bone, Lu Jing and her colleagues can quickly recognize where it is. But to get started, the bugs are still one by one. Only when the skeleton stands up can it have the posture of an animal. How can the chicken and duck skeleton stand up? 502 glue is not good, wire and tacks are not good, and finally use hot melt glue to solve the problem. But what if you want to fight a large mammal? Lu Jing had a headache.
Fortunately, some netizens don't care about minor flaws. Their feedback also gave Lu Jing and her friends the motivation to continue.
In fact, for Lu Jing, making videos is a relatively complicated thing: it is easier to coordinate time and process with many people and ask for help. In comparison, doing research and writing articles are easier. But Lu Jing thought, if you want to make some really good content, you need to pay accordingly.
She also plans to "crowdsource" some scientific research content in the future. For example, through the platform to publish the demand, ask your fans to participate, help collect some data and so on. After Lu Jing summarized the data, he did the corresponding analysis and research.
There are good precedents abroad. The UK has done research on "local snail diversity" through public scientific methods. Although the process is simple, there is also strict logic in its execution. The public can not only contribute to scientific research, but also cultivate a scientific way of thinking. "This goal is what I want to achieve." In a short video of
"Teacher Lu Playing Bones", Lu Jing assembled and restored the bones left after eating the turtle. Beijing News reporter Wang Yuanzheng photo
Like science to "crack counterfeiting"
On the issue of popular science, Lu Jing has a little "selfishness." She didn't want to talk about any biological science, but wanted to talk about things related to ancient creatures and bones. When
was a graduate student, Lu Jing's tutor once told her that a very important function of paleontology is science. Lu Jing did not understand at the time. Later, I gradually understood that paleontology is a very good introduction to science for the public.
But science popularization and scientific research are two completely different things. Popular science needs to simplify the difficult things so that hundreds of thousands of people can understand it. It is a completely different language system from that used in scientific research. Lu Jing always reminded herself that the attitude towards these two things should be the same. Lu Jing is not too sensitive to how many fans
has gained. What she prefers to read is the comment. Often it will become 99+ in about ten minutes, and it will become 99+ again in 10 minutes after clearing. Fans gradually develop a habit of @卢静 when they see or think of something they don’t understand. She will reply one by one happily and give professional answers. In the comment area of a video, Lu Jing will add a lot of knowledge, and there are even several videos. The inspiration is obtained from the questions asked by netizens.
Lu Jing also likes science "fighting fakes."
"Teacher Lu, come and see what this is?" In July, a netizen @卢静, the attached video turned out to be a huge "fish and dragon" fossil. Lu Jing read it several times, and she was a little suspicious: Those who know the anatomical structure know that the vertebral body of the ichthyosaur is short and flat. How can the vertebral body of this "ichthyosaur" be slender?
"Fake." Lu Jing judged that this "fossil" was carved out.
Paleontology is not a very lively subject, but from time to time, people will come to "lively". Lu Jing can't understand some people. They don't really care about the development and promotion of this discipline, but are keen to make a fake name and make quick money. "Not only is it fooling fans, but it also ruins the entire subject."
"People who do scientific research should do more science popularization. Especially in our country, science popularization work is really not enough, and the level of science popularization is also uneven." Lu Jing felt, Do it with a serious and academic attitudeScience popularization will at least raise the current level of domestic science popularization by several steps, and the public will gradually have a criterion for judging whether they are receiving correct or wrong knowledge.
This is also the reason why Lu Jing is willing to put down her body and go to "appearance" to do science popularization. In her view, only by using the spirit of scientific research to do science popularization can provide the public with rigorous and precise guidance. There are a group of scientists abroad who are not only widely praised in the scientific research community, but also able to make excellent science popularization, such as Stephen Jay Gould, Edward Wilson, Richard Dawkins and others, "Our country used to Yes, similar scientists should come forward and do the same in the future."
But it is not easy. Not all researchers are willing to come out to do science popularization. Lu Jing explained that doing science popularization is very laborious. Many scientific researchers are "social fear". Spending two or three hours to explain a simple problem to the public may not be as comfortable as spending two or three hours on a little scientific research.
Moreover, “Most scientific researchers don’t like to stand in the spotlight. Some of them don’t have time, and some don’t want to be disturbed by the outside world.”
“If we don’t even stand up, then what right do we have to say that others are not doing well? What? I hope that our generation of researchers can make good scientific research while also making good science." She wants to make the public learn a more scientific way of thinking through bit of effort. "I don't want others to say that the theory of evolution is to fool people, we don't fool people."
This requires a lot of time. Lu Jing felt that this was just the beginning.
Lu Jing is studying ancient fish fossils. Beijing News reporter Wang Yuanzheng photo
"I am nothing when I leave scientific research"
400,000 fans in 5 months, Lu Jing was labeled "net celebrity". It seems to be placed under the spotlight, and every movement is particularly easy to be amplified. Sometimes, Lu Jing will avoid too much exposure. "A false name has no meaning." The fact that
became a "net celebrity" did not do any good to Lu Jing's professional assessment. In the evaluation system of scientific research circles, scientific research results are king. If scientific research is not done well, doing science popularization will not bring any extra points, but will only make everyone feel that they are off course. To put it simply and rudely, it means "do not do business properly."
Lu Jing's surface is light and breezy, and her heart is full of strength: she must make herself better in scientific research than before in order to have the time and capital to do science. In this way,
actually increases the workload at least twice. She desperately tried to make up time. Lu Jing used to work 12 hours a day, but now she has to work 16 hours a day, and every minute is planned. "I might want to go to a movie or go shopping, but I just want to go, but now I don't have time." In August, Lu Jing also organized an international seminar, and needed to coordinate all the meeting schedules and arrange large and small meetings. detail. She understood that she couldn't spare any extra time to write articles once the meeting was held, so Lu Jing wrote scientific research articles in advance. Two weeks before the meeting, she submitted six scientific research papers, and now five have been accepted.
"At this time, other people's evaluation of you will be positive, and I will not feel that I want to be an Internet celebrity, but I want to promote our discipline while doing scientific research seriously. Only in this way, Will be affirmed by the circle.” The reporter
put forward a hypothesis: If one day, between scientific research and popular science, there must be only one choice, how would you choose?
Lu Jing chose scientific research without hesitation. "This is my dream since I was a child. I knew I would do this business since I was 20." Every moonlight night, she sits in front of the computer, and those seemingly difficult characters flow out of the keyboard with her fingertips. "This is the most reassuring moment of my day."
On the contrary, assuming that there will be 1 million fans immediately, or a scientific research article will be accepted immediately, the latter will also make Lu Jing more happy.
"Leave everything I am studying now, I will be nothing."
Beijing News reporter Feng Qi editor Wu Hui Pan Can proofread Li Shihui
